Category Archives: valentines day

As the consultant nutritionist to the British Olympic Association from 1990 to 2001, Jane Griffin has worked with a range of Olympic Sports including archery, badminton, rowing and canoeing. She has since worked in a variety of teams including English cricket and a number of partnership rugby unions, football and netball clubs. In 2002, Jane received the Ibex award for Professional Achievement from the British Dietetic Association and in the same year was voted one of the top ten leading dieticians in the UK.

So, we can’t think of anyone better to advise us on an Olympians diet and eating habits. Health and fitness are the focus this year, and an athletes diet is equally as important as their training regime.

“While you sit watching the Olympics, think about what those athletes have put into their bodies and think of what’s in yours. Use the Olympics to make some simple changes – try to exercise more and eat more healthily – but don’t lose the enjoyment factor. What better place to start than while watching the Olympics? Swap the high fat, high salty nibbles – you don’t need them if you are just sitting in a chair. Instead prepare healthy TV snacks and healthy mini meals such as Thai Prawn Cocktail Sandwich or Seeded Carrot Flapjacks or a slightly more substantial meal such as a Halfway Pizza that you can produce quickly at meal times. Buy in plenty of white and brown sliced bread, low fat spread and low fat soft cheese to spread on the bread and then have a supply of suitable fillings ready in the fridge and kitchen.” Explains Jane.

She continues “Healthy ideas for fillings include protein based foods such as sliced and cooked meats, smoked salmon, canned tuna or mackerel, hard boiled eggs chopped and mixed with salad cream or low fat mayonnaise, peanut butter and jam. Remember, these are the sort of foods Olympic athletes have been training on!”

This morning, Through the Door Promotions attended our first networking breakfast. Arriving at the RAF Club in Piccadilly at the bright but early time of 7am.

The networking breakfast happens once a week and is lead by a company called BRX, a business development group and a leading name in business networking.

As we arrived, we were ushered to the president suite where a breakfast was waiting as well as fresh orange juice, which was greatly appreciated in this hot weather. Multiple friendly faces greeted us and handshakes introduced the person attached to them and we were seated around a long table to begin the nuptials.

We expected a less formal event with standing and mingling involved. But instead everyone gave a formal one-minute presentation introducing themselves and their company and what they were looking to gain from the networking event. However, we realised that this was a far more efficient and organized strategy as it ensured that everyone was heard and placed in front of the correct decision makers, and companies could discover what other offerings and referrals were available.

Through the Door Promotions received positive feedback from a number of companies and received two referrals – one for a recruitment company and one from a public speaker. However, the most interesting aspect of the entire morning was receiving a range of cleverly and creatively designed business cards.

The ever modest Kanye West announced that “this is the best you will ever see in your life” as he dazzled under the spotlights of London 02 Arena. And last night, Through the Door Promotions was there to catch all of the action. Wearing a Givenchy leather T-shirt, Kanye West was joined on stage by a black clad Jay Z to present the biggest and most elaborate and electrifying show the 02 has ever seen! The two greatest performers nicknamed ‘the Throne’ who both have careers spanning over a decade, united to perform the track list from last years Watch the Throne album as well as diverting to their own extensive back catalogues. Jay Z’s best solo efforts provided well known songs including Empire State of Mind and Run this Town, while Kanye took the audience on a journey through his career performing songs from his first album College Dropout; Jesus Walks and All Falls Down as well as his more recent tracks All of the Lights and Stronger. And unsurprisingly, these solo choices were received with everyone out of their seats dancing and raising their glasses and with Jay Z a veteran of live performances, it is no revelation that he knows how to please a large crowd. And Kanye West must have been extremely satisfied to see over 23,000 people chant the lyrics to 2008 hit Heartless.

The opening sequence saw the pair stand aloft two vast pillars of light, upon which were projected scenes of wild animals. On such scene depicted an ocean view that hosted a great white shark swimming around, portraying the unnerving affect that the superstars were about to fall into their watery graves. Other animals featured included a cheetah and a vicious Doberman. And this animal theme was continued as they launched into ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ with images projected on a large screen including tigers, jaguars and cougars.

Other tracks featured further images that provided a respectful nod to the original music video. Otis came complete with a large American flag whist ‘No Church in the Wild’ offered a petrol bomb treatment.

Michael Jackson was also well and truly present at the arena; with Kanye claiming MJ had passed his gift onto the pair. And the banter continued during ‘All of the Lights’ where he stopped the track to announce, “This is the one time you can get away with it!” concerning the lyric following “Something wrong, I hold my head, MJ gone, our n**** dead!”

As Atlantic recently commented upon, one of the trademarks of the Throne tour has been the finale and Through the Door Promotions were not disappointed! “Big Pimpin”, “Gold Digger” and “99 Problems” were played in quick succession with the encore of “Paris” being played five times. It is the biggest hip-hop song of the past two years and the entirety of the performance has now set a benchmark to which all stadium hip-hop will be judged.

This March 20th – will see Public House’s first ever liquid book club. You must be thinking .. liquid? What do you mean by liquid? Well…. we mean alcohol. Every month we shall meet, having read a book with alcohol related themes. We shall meet at Public House, situated in islington – and discuss the book and drink cocktails that are featured in the book.

For example, this month we are reading John Updike’s Couples:

Ten couples live in Tarbox, an out-of-the-way New England town. They form an exclusive group that feeds on petty rivalries, secrets, wordplay, entertaining, skiing, drinking and sex. Discreetly swapping partners, they conduct their rituals under the watchful eye of their self-appointed ringmaster, Freddy Thorne. but when Piet Hanema and Foxy Whitman have an affair, they reject expediency and caution, and for once the other unshockable couples are deeply shocked. Soon couples at play will become couples at war…..

If you are interested in coming a long – please contact us via a post or call us on 02034273665 or email georgia@throughthedoorpromotions.com

Working with restaurants and bars as you can imagine, means that we are heavily involved in the chaotic preparation that is Valentines Day.

Valentines Day is a strange one for the team at Through The Door, where we all remain undecided about this holiday, with conflicted opinions. Undeniably the the concept behind the holiday is a pleasant story – honoring the early Christian martyr names Saint Valentine. Traditionally, a day where lovers express their love for one another through quaint gifts like flowers and confectionary, this holiday has been an ongoing debate since as early as 496 AD, when it was first established by Pope Gelasius but was later removed in 1969 by Pope Paul VI.

Yes… the day brings people happiness and love needs to be recognised as an important emotion – not just something you hear people singing about! But it’s such a sad thought that it has become so disingenuous these days, with large corporations and retailers somewhat preying on people’s love.

This year Through The Door is going in two opposite directions – firstly we are taking a stand against the cheesy commercialised, greeting card, Valentines day. We shall only be endorsing a truly romantic evening for true lovers… A restaurant that exudes romance and love, like our much talked about restaurant Lena. Lena, is undoubtedly one of the only Italian restaurants that does Valentines day naturally well. Secondly, we are going in the complete opposite direction and helping all the singletons out there – who yet again don’t need to be surrounded by this disingenuous bullsh*t holiday, and provide them with the ultimate retreat that is Public House.

Public House, another fantastic venue – will be helping the singletons or the “I hate Commerical holiday’s,” t-shirt wearing lovers, and will be having a fun filled night for those who would sooner spend the night eating garlic, good food, holding a tub of vaseline and a kleenix in their left hand.